Extinction can be defined as the death of a taxon, simply put (Taylor et al). However, as much as this is negative, extinction of certain species can cause the emergence of new clades by way of radiative speciation. In other words, although extinction is a major threat to the global biodiversity of species, historically it also played a major role in the prevalence of species. This was the case in the extinction of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago, which enabled the radiation of birds and mammals, including that of humans (Taylor et al). Biodiversity, a concept which emerged in 1989, can also be defined as all forms of life on Earth which is very diverse, the interactions among these organisms and finally, the futures of these organisms. (Wake and Vredenburg). Over the past three decades, paleontologists have analyzed the fossil record and interpreted the changing species through evolution. They have also focused on mass extinctions, which as Taylor et al define it, to be “geological short intervals of time when the Earth’s biota was severely depleted”. It is estimated by researchers, with the aid of published data that the rate of extinction is increasing. In the last five decades alone, there have been approximately 60 to 88 mammalian species extinct, which is roughly estimated to be about two percent of global diversity of species. Bird and plant species on the brink of extinction prevail to be ranging from eleven to thirteen percent. The most widely-publicized extinction in recent time would most likely be the extinction of the ‘Dodo’, Raphus cucullatus, which was a relatively large pigeon from the Mauritius Islands in the Indian Ocean with the inability to fly. Even more shockingly, some researchers state that fifty percent of global biodiversity of species is possible to become extinct within the next hundred years. Human activities are the major contributor and driving force for this acceleration in the extinction of species, majorly by the activities of habitat fragmentation and pollution (Taylor et al). The ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions are discussed as well as the effects of human-induced activities, with the examples of the endangered species, Rana sierra frog, the Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis and a bird species, Picoides borealis which is a woodpecker. II. Historical Mass Extinctions [...] These included; The Ordovician–Silurian Extinction The Late Devonian Extinction The Permian-Triassic Extinction The End Triassic Extinction The Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction (Wake and Vredenburg) These extinctions were identified on the basis that they had the most impact on the species level as well as being classified as the most significant. All of these mass extinctions were most significant due to the effect resulting in the loss of biodiversity on a global scale, in a relatively short amount of time. The Ordovician-Silurian Extinction was the earliest mass extinction, which occurred at approximately 439 Mya. [incomplete]

Swine Flu, also known as ‘pig flu’, is an infection affecting the respiratory system of mainly the pig population. It is caused by the virus, swine influenza A virus (abbreviated SIV) and originally was identified in Italy. In humans, the swine influenza A virus of subtype H1N1 was found, more accurately referred to as ‘novel’ H1N1 Influenza. However, its common name remains to be swine flu and symptoms of this infection includes flu-like symptoms in addition to a fever. It was also confirmed that swine flu was able to spread by human to human transmission. By the 29th of April 2009, nine countries, including the United Kingdom, The United States of America, Canada, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Spain, Israel and New Zealand, stated that they identified cases with the swine flu virus, of which some of these cases resulted in death. However, people with weak immune systems, the elderly, children and young adults are more susceptible than most to this infection, placing them in higher risk in comparison to the rest of the population. In June 2009, swine flu was classified as pandemic. This meant that the infection had developed and become a global or widespread virus, due to an outbreak on an international level. This was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on a scale 6 classification which in other words, meant that the WHO stated swine flu was posed as a global health risk. [incomplete]